Whether an heirloom quilt, cherished sampler, or sports jersey worn by a favorite player, Cindy approaches each heirloom project with a level of insight and practical knowledge few in the industry can match. Hands-on, however, isn’t everything. Equally valuable are the personal caring and gentle sensitivity which guide the most delicate and critical projects.
During her decades of personal interest, careful study, and professional practice, Cindy has developed uncommon insight and practical heirloom textile knowledge. Cindy’s restoration and cleaning expertise spans many eras, fabrics, and styles — reaching back to the late 1800’s. Each restoration candidate is treated as a one-of-a-kind, uniquely-valuable, artifact. Restoration includes replacing zippers, buttons, etc. with appropriate vintage items. If you plan to store your treasure for a prolonged period of time, we suggest our preservation and boxing service.
Textile restoration is a slow and thoughtful process. First, I test the color and strength of the fabric to every element that I will be using. I then start removing stain and soil by hand with stain removable soaps and solvents. Next, it is either dry cleaned in our state of the art dry cleaning machine on a special program or wet cleaned by hand. Soaking is the key either in water or solvent. Vintage textiles do not tolerate much agitation. A special drying rack lets the textiles relax and doesn’t stress them in the process. Hand finishing with specials tools is next. I have spent years collecting or making ironing hams and ironing boards so small to fit in the tiniest of places. Textiles are either folded in acid free tissue or hung on padded acid free hangers. This depends on how they are to be used. The average textile takes about 4 hours to complete the process. During the actual cleaning process, I never leave it alone. So it is very time consuming, and I cannot be interrupted.
